THE Trip, Arches National Park, The First Drive Out

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

All wonderful days must wind down, and our first day in Arches did indeed wind down, but would not end till we enjoyed the 18 mile drive out of the park.  Sony was clickin' away, Man and I were ahhhhhhhhing away. We stopped at several of the attractions/viewing points on the way out, mostly the ones that were deep in the park, as we knew we could not see it all, at least not on this day.  Plan was when we came back we would do the stops in the first 10 miles or so of the park.  Plan worked fairly well, by the way.  LOL

Below:  This area is called Fiery Furnace.

In the photo below I love the contrasts, the low slung structures in the foreground, with the look of melted ice cream, vs the upright structures (fins) in the background, jutting out of the desert floor.

Below, zoom in a bit, thanks to Sony:

Below:  Similar structures, noting the area of white tucked in between 2 areas of red:

Below:  There was a large area where these "green" hills appeared.  Striking difference in color and structure, once again.

Below:  I direct you to the very bottom of the photo, find the automobiles, and the road, and use those to gain perspective of the massive size of the structures and of the park.

This is Delicate Arch.  Man and I did not hike to the arch, in fact, we did the "view it from the viewing stations, less than desirable, but at least you get to see it" act.  We would have preferred to hike in, at least a bit closer, but time and energy were not working in our favor.

Below, Delicate Arch again, backing off a LOT on the zoom, taking in the entire landscape - -

Following photo taken near the area called the Salt Valley, note the deep shadows as day wanes:

The light is turning golden as the sun falls further towards sunset, giving the desert a special color and tones:

We end our photo tour today with this towering structure.  As always the size befuddles our brains, look at that white car down there, ya, it's there, keep looking - -

We will return to Arches two more days, resulting in many more photos and memories.  This first day into Arches I took over 425 photos in just over 6 hours, noting that I took none for the couple of hours that we were visiting our friends Robbie and Alice.  WOW, and MORE WOW!!!




* Our first day in Arches National Park was April 27, 2011.
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